After over 5 years of bspwm, I have decided to enjoy myself in the
luxurious life that is GNOME.
Using bspwm and window managers in general was an invaluable learning
experience that gave me a deep understanding of many of the novelties
of the current linux desktop computing model. It had a profound impact
on my understanding of how operating systems work in general, and I
now wish to move on and enjoy modern GNOME simplicity.
What a ride. Although I absolutely loved configuring my keybinds through
sxhkd, more so than i3 / sway and similar window managers, I didn't
realize that most of what I was doing under bspwm could also be
accomplished under GNOME through gsettings.
Since I now use GNOME, I no longer need to worry about configuring a
separate program to show notifications. Although GNOME notifications
aren't nearly as customizable, they match the theme of the desktop
environment and get the job done.
Although qutebrowser was very cute, there are too many disadvantages to
using it that can be solved by simply using a more mainstream browser. I
cover some of those issues in previous commit messages.
Note that although this was great from a proof-of-concept point of view,
it's significantly easier and more effective to simply use the yomichan
add-on in a web browser like firefox.
This was the configuration I used for tint2 when I was trying to
replicate a taskbar-like experience in bspwm. Although it worked to some
extent, the dash-to-panel extension for GNOME handles this much nicer,
and with the many other benefits GNOME provides.
dual-function-keys is an amazing piece of software that solves many if
not all of the long-lasting issues I had with binding caps lock to ctrl
and escape. I have additionally configured it in a way such that print
screen can double as a right super key, due to it being next to right
alt and right ctrl on the T14.
This was my configuration for librewolf, a web browser I used for a few
months before ultimately deciding to use firefox again for simplicity.
Although librewolf is useful for giving individuals immediate access to
a solid browser with ublock origin pre-installed, the downsides such as
not having automatic updates for users that need it the most, as well as
constantly depending on another project to update in a timely manner,
do not seem worth it in the long-term.
This was my configuration for qutebrowser, a web browser that I
revisited in 2022 and decided to use for a few months. Although I
certainly found the experience quite cute, I came across issues such
as the content window blanking when switching workspaces, strict https
mode not being supported, containerization requiring separate tabs, and
frequent crashes when dealing with large amounts of tabs.
Besides the issues above, I also had to deal with certain websites
not loading in qutebrowser without any way to troubleshoot it from
developer tools. In addition to the lack of extension support (thereby
requiring more involved measures to replicate similar behavior found in
other browsers) and the inferior content blocking solution, I ultimately
decided to switch back to my old trusty friend firefox.
This was my implementation of dynamic desktops, largely inspired by the
various hints I found on r/bspwm. Although this was a very engaging
intellectual exercise, I eventually realized that GNOME handles dynamic
desktops much better, and comes with a slew of other conveniences as
well.
Realistically won't be using custom backgrounds with kitty due to the
complexity involved in changing them among other things. Setting the
background opacity and letting the desktop environment manage the
background instead is more convenient.
